Stunning Sofia Vergara Photos, Past and Present

She took to Twitter to post some old photos from her younger days, but she's looking better than ever nowadays.

At London's Daily Mail, "I was a blonde bombshell! Sofia Vergara shares flashback snaps from her early days as a model in Colombia."

VIDEO: Judge Jeanine Pirro on Journal News' Map of Gun Owners

I caught this last night. Judge Pirro is awesome:

Peyton Manning is Back and Better Than Ever

At USA Today:

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Every few days, Archie Manning's phone will ring early in the morning.

It's even earlier in Colorado, where Peyton Manning frequently makes the most of his time on the 20-minute commute from his home in an upscale suburb of Denver to the Broncos training facility.

Archie Manning has been making it a point not to bother his son too much during his first season in Denver, but this much is clear from those phone calls: Peyton Manning is happy and enjoying football more than ever

"I know for sure he's not taking it for granted. I think he's elated," Archie Manning told USA TODAY Sports this week. "Peyton's always been a grinder, but I think he's enjoying it more. I think he maybe reflects more, and he's soaking up every moment."

It's not that Manning ever stopped loving football. But after neck surgeries — four of them over 18 months — forced him to miss the 2011 season, Manning has learned to appreciate all of the moments along the way.

And there have been plenty of them in his storied 15-year NFL career. The former No. 1 overall pick out of Tennessee is a four-time league MVP, a five-time all-pro first-team player and a Pro Bowler a dozen times. He led the Colts to the playoffs 11 times and the Super Bowl twice — winning once as the game's MVP — in his 14 seasons in Indianapolis.

And see Sam Farmer, at LAT, "Broncos QB Peyton Manning wrote the book on speed reading."

I'll have more football blogging over the weekend. Baltimore at Denver starts at 1:30pm Pacific.

After Immigration Arrests, Obama Administration Caves to Open Borders Mob on Twitter

The world is upside down. Connected lawbreakers like David Gregory get off scot-free, while the justice system crushes those who dare step outside the confines of politically acceptable discourse. Things are so bad that even Obama's ICE hacks can't get a break. When DREAM activist Erika Andiola's mother and brother were arrested the young woman's response was swift. She organized a politically correct mob of Twitter untouchables to denounce the "injustice," and promptly won a reprieve from a kowtowed White House scared of its own open borders shadow.

And on cue, the New York Times balloons this farce into the family tragedy of the century. See, "After Immigration Arrests, Online Outcry, and Release":

"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty" #istandwitherika #WeAreAndiola #SomosAndiola #RealTalk twitter.com/maria4az/statu…
— Maria Castro (@maria4az) January 11, 2013

PHOENIX — Immigration agents arrested the mother and brother of a prominent activist during a raid at her home here late Thursday, unleashing a vigorous response on social media and focusing new attention on one of the most controversial aspects of the Obama administration’s policies on deportation.

The agents knocked on Erika Andiola’s door shortly after 9 p.m., asking for her mother, Maria Arreola.

Ms. Arreola had been stopped by the police in nearby Mesa last year and detained for driving without a license. Her fingerprints were sent to federal immigration officials as part of a controversial program called Secure Communities, which the Obama administration has been trying to expand nationwide.

That routine check revealed that Ms. Arreola had been returned to Mexico in 1998 after she was caught trying to illegally cross the border into Arizona with Erika and two of her siblings in tow. As a result, she was placed on a priority list for deportation.

After being seized on Thursday, she could have been sent back to Mexico in a matter of hours, but Obama administration officials moved quickly to undo the arrests. Officials had been pressured by the robust response from advocates — through phone calls, e-mails and online petitions, but primarily on Twitter, where they mobilized support for Ms. Andiola, a well-known advocate for young illegal immigrants, under the hashtag #WeAreAndiola.

The reaction offered the Obama administration a taste of what it might expect when it gets into the thick of the debate over an immigration overhaul, which Congress is expected to tackle this year. President Obama has already been under harsh criticism for the number of illegal immigrants deported since he took office — roughly 400,000 each year, a record unmatched since the 1950s.

Ms. Andiola, 25, posted a tearful video on YouTube shortly after her mother and brother were handcuffed and driven away. “I need everybody to stop pretending that nothing is wrong,” she said in the video, “stop pretending that we’re all just living normal lives, because we’re not. This could happen to any of us anytime.”

She is the co-founder of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, one of the groups pushing for a reprieve for immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children, as she was. She has been arrested while camped in front of Senator John McCain’s office here, protested outside the United States Capitol, and appeared on the cover of Time magazine in June under the headline, “We are Americans — just not legally.”

In November, Ms. Andiola got a work permit under a program begun by the Obama administration last year that gives certain young illegal immigrants temporary reprieve from deportation. She graduated from Arizona State University in 2009.

Well, the young woman's working the system like old time political pro. And that Twitter mob is downright freaky. Look at that stuff: #WeAreAndiola. At least they're not hiding the total open-borders radicalism:

"The same President who was forced to stop deporting DREAMers must stop deporting our families too." bit.ly/WLu78Q #WeAreAndiola
— UnitedWeDream.org (@UNITEDWEDREAM) January 12, 2013

DREAM's a lawbreaker's scam. Erika Andiola is living proof.

Back over at the New York Times, it turns out there's a chance that Ms. Andiola's mom could still get the boot back to Mexico. No worries though. Her daughter has more pull than an old-line PRI boss in Mexico City. No doubt the goons at immigration enforcement will be going easy on these folks, lest old Eric Holder bring down some bureaucratic heat. Those DREAMers are working the president like a Stradivarius.

Prop. 13 Tax Restraints Targeted for Attack by California Legislators

I blogged on this in November, after it became clear that the Democrats would have a super-majority in the legislature.

See IBD, "Proposition 13 Property Tax Curbs Face Attack In California":

The tax revolt that swept California and the nation starting in the 1970s may have run out of steam, but its landmark law, Proposition 13, is still largely intact.

That could change in the next two years as Democratic state lawmakers with a new two-thirds majority in both houses take aim at Proposition 13 tax restraints in their hunt for money.

Taxpayer advocates are girding for battle. "This year, for us, will be devoted entirely to defending Proposition 13," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association.

Backers of Proposition 13 warn that changes could pinch family finances and hurt businesses, large and small, in a state with joblessness still near 10% and costs higher than many locales.

Passed in 1978 with nearly 65% of the state voting yes, Proposition 13 is a shield and political symbol. It has kept California property taxes moderate and predictable, capping them at 1% of a property's value when it last sold, plus a 2% annual inflation factor.

Critics long blamed the law for state fiscal woes. But mainstream politicians knew it was popular and didn't want to touch it.

Isn't this amazing.

Just yesterday the Los Angeles Times reported on Governor Brown's announcement that the California state budget is in the black. You'd think that these people would try to restrain spending rather than go hunting for ever more "revenue" sources. The maw of the leftist entitlement state is never sated.

There's more at the link.

MSNBC's Al Sharpton Touts Gov. Chris Christie as Model for GOP 'Compromise'

There's a lot going on at this clip, not least being the comments from the smokin' Abby Hunstman, daughter of RINO presidential contender Jon Hunstman. All this talk about Chris Christie is fascinating. He's a great guy, although those bromance bear hugs with Barack Hussein after Hurricane Sandy didn't go over too well with the conservative base. And if you stay with it until Ms. Hunstman comes on, Al Sharpton attacks Rush Limbaugh for raising the issue of the left's normalization of pedophilia, which Robert Stacy McCain discussed yesterday, "Rush Limbaugh Is Right: The Academic Pro-Pedophile Movement Is a Real Danger."

And remember, this is a concerted action by the left's media complex to mainstream these big "compromise" Republicans like Christie. The dude got the full front cover treatment at Time Magazine this last week: "Chris Christie branded 'The Boss' on front cover of Time magazine but insists it'd be 'crazy' to think of run at the White House (for now at least)."

Obama Accelerates End of U.S. Combat Role in Afghanistan

Things aren't going to turn out well in Afghanistan, but this is what the president's always wanted.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Afghanistan War Goal 'Now Within Reach,' President Declares; U.S. to Transition Into Advisory Role":

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama said he would speed up troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, signaling his intention to accelerate the end of America's longest war.

After White House meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday, Mr. Obama said the U.S. is moving up the schedules for pulling American forces out of Afghan villages and for ending most unilateral combat operations. That is possible, he said, thanks to what he described as recent gains by U.S. troops and progress in training Afghan security forces to take the combat lead.

"The reason we went to war in the first place is now within reach: ensuring that al Qaeda can never again use Afghanistan to launch attacks against our country," Mr. Obama said.

"Starting this spring, our troops will have a different mission—training, advising, assisting Afghan forces," he added. "This sets the stage for the further reduction of coalition forces."

The shift, announced by the president at a White House news conference with Mr. Karzai, could carry benefits for both leaders as they negotiate winding down the unpopular war, now in its 12th year.

Mr. Obama provided few new details except to say that American force reductions should continue at a steady pace, signaling at least some of the 66,000 American troops now in Afghanistan could leave starting this spring and summer, rather than in the fall, the time frame preferred by commanders.

Top Pentagon officials had said that they envisioned the U.S. shifting from a combat to a support mission, focused on training and assisting the Afghans, in mid-2013. The steps announced Friday by the U.S. and Afghan leaders moved up that time frame by several months, to spring.

A faster withdrawal timeline allows Mr. Karzai to argue back home that he has been able to more quickly recoup Afghanistan's sovereignty, with Afghan forces taking the lead on security and U.S. troops exiting sooner.

In the U.S., Mr. Obama gets to make the case to Americans that he isn't only winding down the war, but that he is doing so even faster than he had promised.

To military experts, speeding the withdrawal process may not be the best war strategy. Afghan and coalition officials said Afghan troops still depend on international forces for artillery, air support, intelligence collection and casualty evacuation.

"If this acceleration means the Afghans don't have access to those combat multipliers…that puts their ability to assume lead responsibility at risk," said Gen. James Dubik, a senior fellow for the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank occasionally critical of the administration's strategy.

PREVIOUSLY: "How to Waste a Decade in Afghanistan."

NBC's David Gregory Will Not Be Prosecuted for Illegal Magazine Clip

At the Washington Post, "No charges for “Meet the Press” host Gregory for displaying high-capacity magazine on the air."

And at AoSHQ, "Company Town: AG Who Gave David Gregory a Pass Turns Out to be Friend... of David Gregory's Wife."

IMAGE CREDIT: Legal Insurrection, "David Gregory will not be prosecuted."

Britney Spears Splits From Fiancé Jason Trawick

She's got a lot going on --- and I hope she's not going to have another meltdown anytime soon. She made a fabulous recovery, personally and professionally, after that shaved-head fiasco some years back. Here's wishing her well.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Britney Spears and Jason Trawick end engagement, go separate ways":

It's been a big day for Britney Spears. Not only did she confirm she was leaving "The X Factor" after only one season, she also announced she and Jason Trawick were breaking off their engagement after only one year.

"I'll always adore him and we will remain great friends," Spears said in a statement released to People announcing the end of the engagement. Brit's rep told the mag the decision was mutual.

Added Trawick, her onetime agent who'd popped the question back in December 2011: "I love and cherish her and her boys and we will be close forever."

Brit has two sons, 7-year-old Preston and 6-year-old Jayden, from her marriage to Kevin Federline, which ended.

While sources told TMZ that Spears and Trawick had simply "grown apart" and called the breakup friendly, Radar Online painted an uglier picture, alleging that the two had been fighting for months and sleeping apart, saying Trawick had already moved out of the home they shared.

More at London's Daily Mail, "Britney Spears 'jumps before she's pushed' as she quits The X Factor USA after just one season."

Two Minutes Hate

Following up on yesterday's post, "Dear Leader Barack Hussein Has Already Cemented His Legacy."

Here's the "Two Minutes Hate" from "Hate Week" in "1984."

Nowadays MSNBC performs the ritual, nightly.

'I Can Barely Contain My Fury at What Is Going On...'

A great segment from Mark Levin's show, via RCP:

MARK LEVIN: You know folks, I'll be honest with you. I just told a friend of mine -- even though I sit behind this microphone and I try to be civil and so forth -- I can barely contain my fury about what's going on in this country. I'm just being honest with you. I can barely contain it. I'm so frustrated by this tyranny, you have no idea. Now we can analyze it, we can intellectualize it, we can parse it and so forth and try to unravel it. But I'm just telling you, from an emotional point of view, it is just so damned infuriating to see the greatest country on the face of the earth run by a bunch of lilliputians, who are constantly attacking it from within.

Dear Leader Barack Hussein Has Already Cemented His Legacy

These idiots at National Journal are debating whether Our Dear Leader Barack Hussein should have his face added to Mr. Rushmore. And I'm all, "Like that even matters? Dear Leader's face is already carved into every telescreen across the country, just like Big Brother in "1984."

See, "Obama Has Already Cemented His Legacy, Like It or Not" (via Memeorandum).

Also at the Washington Free Beacon, "Sharpton: Is Obama Ready for Mt. Rushmore? (VIDEO)."

IMAGE CREDIT: The People's Cube.

French Air Strikes Against Islamist Insurgency in Mali

At Telegraph UK, "France launches air strike on al-Qaeda in Mali":

French forces have launched an air strike on the southern fringe of the Sahara, intervening to help Mali’s army stop al-Qaeda fighters from advancing towards the country’s capital.

President François Hollande declared that Mali’s very existence was threatened by “terrorist aggression”, adding: “French army forces supported Malian units this afternoon to fight against terrorist elements.”

The battle came after hundreds of Islamist gunmen struck beyond their stronghold in northern Mali and seized the town of Konna in the central region on Thursday.

This placed them less than 40 miles from Mopti, the last garrison town protecting the road to the capital, Bamako. President Dioncounda Traore of Mali appealed for help from France, the former colonial power, and a counter-attack began Friday with the aim of retaking Konna.

Just hours after the assault was launched, reports claimed that Malian forces had successfully retaken Konna with French military support. “We are there now,” Lieutenant Colonel Diaran Kone told Reuters.

“Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” (AQIM) and its local allies captured three regions of northern Mali last year, gaining control over 300,000 square miles. In the past week, they have begun moving southwards and taking even more territory.

And at Atlas Shrugs, "FRENCH AIR STRIKES HELP MALIAN ARMY BEAT BACK ISLAMIC SUPREMACIST PRO-SHARIA REBELS."

Dan Froomkin: 'Zero Dark Thirty Is a Despicable Movie...'

Froomkin retweeted my little LOL rant from last night:

.@froomkin "Zero Dark Thirty" is freakin' killer! And was LOL at your stereotypical "review": froomkin.tumblr.com/post/401007654… #ZDT @zerodarkthirty
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 11, 2013

And here's his post, on Tumblr no less, "Zero Dark Thirty Is a Despicable Movie, Even if Bigelow and Boal Didn’t Intend It That Way."

This movie is generating more leftist outrage over a motion picture than I can remember.

I'll have more on this...

PREVIOUSLY: "Academy Snubs Best Director Nomination for Katherine Bigelow and 'Zero Dark Thirty'."

'I assumed the Big Bang Theory would be exactly like that... But it's not. It's actually smartly written, with some genuine care put into it...'

That's AoSHQ riffing on television's "Big Bang Theory":

I avoided this show for years because of Murphy Brown. Murphy Brown was "about politics," but the extent of the "politics" was insipid references to people who were in politics.

Like, "Gee, I haven't been this drunk since I did tequila shooters with Gary Hart!"

Wocka wocka. You mentioned a name I've read in a newspaper. How political.

I assumed the Big Bang Theory would be exactly like that, but swapping out political references for geek ones -- "Gee, I haven't been this drunk since I did tequila shooters with Gary Gygax!"

But it's not. It's actually smartly written, with some genuine care put into it. Apparently they have an on-staff scientist vetting all the science -- all the formulas, all the references, all the scientific analogies -- that appear on the show.

And the geek stuff is almost all stuff geeks actually talk about (or at least have thought about). Plot holes in movies, time-travel paradoxes, superhero continuity issues. Even when they talk about something that hasn't actually been a topic of geek conversation -- like Raj's contention that mummies are no different than zombies, except with respect to one minor fashion choice -- it's at least in the ballpark of a Real Geek Topic.

I wanted to mention it because last night's show, which should be on demand if you have that service, was a pretty good entry point for people who don't watch the show...

Hmm... Okay, I might be able to find time to check it out, if only to observe fine thesbian skills of smokin' hot Kaley Cuoco.

Socialist Lawrence O'Donnell Blasphemes Holy Bible in Vicious Rant Attacking Pastor Louie Giglio

Following up on my earlier coverage of this controversy, for example, "'The intolerant Left claims another scalp...'," and "The Homosexual Star Chamber Exacts Its Latest Penalty."

Recall that O'Donnell is a self-declared socialist and he really demonstrates his Marxist bona fides here. He's right that virtually no one alive today follows the Holy Scripture with 100 percent literalism, but that argument's just a straw man facilitating a no-holds-barred, across-the-board attack on biblical moral teachings in public life. He's really disgusting. Remember what Kirsten Powers said (linked above). Opposition to homosexuality is just plain orthodox Christian teaching. Demonize that and you demonize an entire faith. All the rest of O'Donnell's blatherings about the Bible not condemning slavery is bullshit. Anyone who's familiar with the politics of Martin Luther King, Jr., knows that the black community drew its greatest strength from the Bible's teaching on the Exodus and the scriptural promises of freedom from bondage. O'Donnell is blasphemous and obscene and Pastor Giglio must have really been hitting too mother f-king close for these depraved assholes, Lawrence O'Donnell and his Think Progress thugs. Behold that Giglio's penance is to be flogged in the court of public opinion and banished from the public realm for taking a position at odds with our Great Leader Barack Hussein Obama.

I simply do not recognize the America of today. This hateful, vile public discourse the left pushes is not representative of the America that cradled me in freedom from my childhood. It's an ugly, vindictive, and harshly punitive state of affairs. It's shameful and simultaneously makes me sad but angry, and determined never to cave to these progressive ghouls. Never.

UPDATE: Linked at Astute Bloggers, "MSNBC'S LARRY O'DONNELL PROVES CONTEMPORARY SOCIALISTS PERSIST IN ATTACKING OUR JUDEO-CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION DESPITE THE FACT SOCIALISM HAS KILLED MORE THAT ANY IDEOLOGY EXCEPT FOR ISLAM."

Thanks!

'The intolerant Left claims another scalp...'

Following up on my post yesterday, "The Homosexual Star Chamber Exacts Its Latest Penalty."

Here's Twitchy on Kirsten Powers' comments on the left's merciless attack on Louie Giglio, "Kirsten Powers slams ‘intolerant Left’ for forcing pastor out of inauguration."

For the record, I don't agree with a lot of what Giglio said, but his sermon was basic orthodox Christianity. Who is banned next? The pope?
— kirsten powers (@kirstenpowers10) January 11, 2013

Well, yeah. The left's goal is to eradicate any recognition of religion, and the role of moral values, in public life. It's absolutely totalitarian, the kind of censorship and suppression you'd find in totalitarian societies. Like I said yesterday, they'd execute Giglio if they could. It's frightening the degree of power these extremist minorities have under this regime, but that's why conservatives have to stand a post. We're down to the very survival of liberty in this country.

'Lincoln' and Other Serious Films Top Oscar Nominee List

A commentary from A.O. Scott, at the New York Times, "A Chainsaw-Free Mainstream":

#ZeroDarkThirty has received 5 #OscarNoms, including Best Picture. See it in theaters TOMORROW: bit.ly/ZDTtix twitter.com/ZeroDarkThirty…

— Zero Dark Thirty (@ZeroDarkThirty) January 10, 2013

For the past few years, the Oscars have been haunted by the fear that the pictures, to paraphrase Norma Desmond, had gotten small. Or at least that the kind of pictures worthy of Academy Awards no longer operated at a scale demanded by a worldwide broadcast. The box office numbers of best picture nominees seemed to be shrinking as the movie business split in two. At one end was a specialized boutique outfit, at the other a franchise factory geared to the international mass market. Between those poles was a hole where the serious mainstream movies used to be.

 Some time in the past decade or so, the argument goes, Hollywood abandoned the grown-up audience, preferring to chase after adolescent eyeballs with fantasy blockbusters and lowbrow genre fare. Or maybe the discerning public, seduced by cable television and distracted by the Internet, gave up on moviegoing, leaving the multiplexes to the teenage mutant vampire hordes. In any case, the idea that American cinema could define and ennoble the broad middle ground of the culture — a magical place where art intersects with commerce and popularity coexists with prestige — is as dead as the old studio system.

Don’t believe it. When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its nominees Thursday, it dealt a blow to this conventional wisdom. Whether ambitious mainstream moviemaking has been granted a new, long-term lease on life remains to be seen. But the Academy’s choices confirmed that 2012 was not just a strong year for movies, but also for precisely the kind of movies that are supposed to be nearly obsolete.

Look at the list of leading nominees — “Lincoln” and “Argo,” “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Les Misérables,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Amour,” “Life of Pi” and “Django Unchained” — and you will find a dizzying diversity of themes and styles. You may also notice a lot of big-studio releases without a superhero in sight. And, perhaps most remarkably, you will find movies that have already sparked passionate arguments and sold a lot of tickets. It would be hard to say the same about the last two best picture winners, “The Artist” and “The King’s Speech.” Both were charming, nostalgic trifles, and though “The King’s Speech” made a lot of money, it was too safe — too small — to make anybody angry.

Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” leading the pack this year with 12 nominations, is an almost too-perfect example of the kind of movie they supposedly don’t make anymore. Shot on actual film stock in somber light, it tackles weighty historical issues with a blend of gravity and exuberant theatricality that would have done the old moguls proud. But it is much more than a musty period drama, or a puffed-up, dumbed-down history lesson.

"Lincoln" was awesome, but I'm still reeling from the spectacular "Zero Dark Thirty."

I might go see that again. Man, was it good.

Anyway, more of Scott's piece at that top link.

Sandy, Katrina, and the Pro-Government Party

A devastating commentary, from Mona Charen, at National Review:

Just a few days after Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, the New York Times’s Paul Krugman crowed triumphantly about the federal government’s response to the disaster. “After Katrina the government seemed to have no idea what it was doing; this time it did. And that’s no accident: the federal government’s ability to respond effectively to disaster always collapses when antigovernment Republicans hold the White House, and always recovers when Democrats take it back.”

What a fairy tale. Mature adults understand that earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are unfortunate facts of life. They further know that government agencies are, by their very nature, slow and lumbering animals.

Krugman was right about one thing, though. Sandy would not be Obama’s Katrina, because the press is on his side. President Obama parachuted into New Jersey after the storm and declared that he would not tolerate “red tape” or “bureaucracy” by the government. He then hopped back aboard Air Force One and resumed his campaign schedule. His admirers, including, alas, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey and the besotted Krugman, swooned.

Six days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, President Bush’s presidency had been declared a failure and a disgrace. It was all FEMA’s fault, we were given to understand, and, by extension, Bush’s fault. It wasn’t the incompetence of local and state officials, or the levee collapse (a failure, by the way, that impartial observers lay at the feet of another government agency going back years, the Army Corps of Engineers). No, within a few days of the storm’s impact, Bush was an enemy of the people.

RTWT.

Jessica Chastain Wins Best Actress at Critics Choice Movie Awards

She is so good. I'll be blown away if she doesn't win the Best Actress Oscar as well.

At London's Daily Mail, "Well that paid off! Jessica Chastain wins Best Actress after jetting to LA from Broadway for Critics' Choice Awards."

And this is the Broadcast Film Critics Association's 18th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards, which formally launches the awards season. More at the Los Angeles Times, "'Argo' wins Critics' Choice Movie Awards for best film, director." And the Hollywood Reporter, "'Argo,' 'Silver Linings Playbook' Win Big at Critics' Choice Movie Awards."

Italy's Mussolini Cult

At Der Spiegel, "'Il Duce' Calendars and Beer Mugs: Mussolini Cult Alive and Well in Italy":

Every year, thousands of people in Italy hang a fresh calendar of images depicting Benito Mussolini on their wall, just one of many indications that the cult of "Il Duce" is alive and well in the country. Many still consider the fascist dictator to have been an honorable man, and it is a weakness that politicians such as Silvio Berlusconi have been able to exploit.

Decked out in army fatigues, his hand raised in fascist salute, he emblazons newsstands, lies ready in bookshops and is splashed across countless websites: Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator and founder of fascism known simply as "Il Duce", enjoys massive popularity in Italy as a calendar pin-up. One month he's in a steel helmet, his chin jutting sharply forward, the next he's clutching a Roman short sword, the famous chin still at attention. His valiant, steel-helmeted soldiers also march on annually, in color or black and white, accompanied by fascist symbols like the swastika.

Foreign tourists, especially Germans, are shocked when they see these openly flaunted calendars. Yet even in 2013, the former Italian dictator has a loyal fan base at home. And they're not just buying calendars.

The full extent of the Mussolini cult -- a phenomenon many foreigners find difficult to understand -- can be seen in Predappio, a small town in the Emilia-Romagna region with barely 7,000 inhabitants. As a tourist destination, Predappio is not really worth the trip. But it was here on July 29, 1883 that Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, the son of a blacksmith and a village school teacher, began a life that would lead to his coronation as "Il Duce," the architect of fascism who was the precursor and in many respects a model for Adolf Hitler.

Back then, the dreary village was still called Dovia. But its most famous son used it as a model settlement for fascist city planning, rebuilding the town and renaming it Predappio. Later, after he had been captured in 1945 by Italian partisans, executed and hung upside down on public display at a Milan gas station, the former dictator was buried with his father, mother, wife, daughter, sister and brother in Predappio.

'The Only God'

Today, young men with shaved heads in long black capes regularly pose for photos at the Mussolini family tomb. The condolence book is filled with sentences like "You are the only God," and some visitors stretch their right arms forward in the so-called "Roman salute," not dissimilar to the Nazi salute.

Every year hundreds of thousands of visitors come to Predappio, filling its bars, restaurants, and especially the "Il Duce" devotional shops that line the main road. There you can buy letter-openers, ashtrays, coins, shirts, pants, coffee cans, wine, beer mugs and lighters brandishing slogans are like "Believe, Obey, Fight" or "Damned be he who gives up." Of course, all bear images of Mussolini, replete with famous chin and fascist salute. There are flags with swastikas and SS insignia and 38-centimeter-tall bronze busts of "Il Duce" that go for €45.

There's even a bust of Hitler, markedly smaller of course at 16 centimeters, for the bargain price of €15. Objects like these attract some German neo-Nazis, who seize the opportunity, as well as the bottle -- in this case filled with beer and bearing Adolf 's image under the heading "The Comrade" for the price of €3.

Italians, for the most part, shun the Nazi nostalgia items, which disturb the country's mainstream historical narrative. The most successful of the Mussolini souvenir sellers in Predappio, Pierluigi Pompignoli, puts it this way: "Hitler was a criminal, but Mussolini was a man of honor."

Well, if there was ever a postwar European crisis conducive to Fascism's return in Italy, we're right in the middle of it.

More at the link, in any case.

PHOTO CREDIT: "Benito Mussolini and Fascist Blackshirt youth in 1935," via Wikimedia Commons.

'You Come Here With Your Little Book...'

Boy, that Piers Morgan sure likes egging on the pro-deportation crowd.

Dissing the U.S. Constitution as "your little book" while debating Ben Shapiro? That's really a lot.

Via BigFurHat, "Bravo Ben Shapiro!"

Bombings in Pakistan Kill More Than 100 People

At the Wall Street Journal, "Pakistan Bombings Kill More Than 100 People."

And at Atlas Shrugs, "#Savage #MyJihad: Twin Suicide Bombings kill 115 people in Pakistan."

Stunning 360 Degree Interactive Image of New York City

Very cool, at Telegraph UK, "New York in stunning 360 degree detail."

It takes a few seconds to load.

But, indeed, very cool.

NRA Pushes Back Against White House Gun Control Agenda

At the Wall Street Journal, "Biden's Emerging Gun Push Draws NRA Ire":

Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday he would recommend the White House push for broad measures to stem gun violence, citing growing support for tighter background checks on gun purchasers, restrictions on high-capacity clips and other moves.

But the National Rifle Association delivered a swift rebuke following a meeting with Mr. Biden, saying the administration was gearing up for an attack on gun ownership.

Mr. Biden said he would deliver his recommendations Tuesday to President Barack Obama, who has promised a quick effort to put them into practice. The strong opposition from the NRA, the nation's most powerful gun-rights group, suggested proponents of new measures had substantial work to do to build political support.

"We disagreed, obviously, on important issues,'' said James Baker, director of federal affairs for the NRA, who attended the meeting Thursday with Mr. Biden. In a written statement, the NRA said it was "disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment.''

Mr. Biden and other administration officials have met with a range of groups this week, among them medical associations, victims' rights and sportsmen's organizations, entertainment-industry trade groups and gun retailers, as part of an assignment from Mr. Obama to draw up a response to the school killings last month in Newtown, Conn.

Mr. Biden detailed some of his potential recommendations before a morning meeting with sportsmen's groups and others, saying they had arisen from his discussions so far and had broad support.

He didn't say in his public comments whether he would recommend an effort to revive the federal assault-weapons ban that expired in 2004. But Mr. Baker, the NRA official, said Mr. Biden all but threw his support behind a ban during the private meeting the NRA attended Thursday. The White House declined to comment on Mr. Baker's characterization of Mr. Biden's position.

In his public comments, Mr. Biden also said he had heard a "surprising recurrence'' of suggestions from groups he consulted that the nation require a background check for every gun purchase. Currently, checks are only needed for purchases from federally licensed dealers, in an effort to make sure that buyers aren't prohibited from owning a firearm.

Many proponents of tougher rules have called for closing what some call the "gun show loophole,'' which allows sales without background checks from private sellers who often do business at gun shows. Mr. Biden suggested that background checks be applied even more widely, to all private sales, wherever they occur. Gun-control advocates say that a substantial share of the nation's gun sales are excluded from the background-check requirement.

Richard Feldman, president of the Independent Firearm Owners Association Inc., said a number of areas of agreement emerged during the meeting attended by the NRA, especially on civil commitment laws for the mentally ill and increased penalties for gun trafficking. Mr. Feldman said he differed from many in the room by backing expanded background checks at gun shows. He said, however, he opposed requiring background checks on all gun sales.

The NRA said it opposes Mr. Biden's plan to expand background checks.

Depending on how they are crafted, most of Mr. Biden's potential recommendations would likely require legislation. Mr. Obama can take some steps without agreement from Congress, as he has executive authority to ban certain gun imports and strengthen some aspects of background checks.

"We can do a great deal without in any way imposing on and impinging on the rights of the Second Amendment," Mr. Biden said in public comments.

And at the New York Times, "Tough Path for Ban on Assault Guns Shifts Obama's Focus." (Via Memeorandum.)

PREVIOUSLY: "Leftists Push Gun Control Agenda 'Unmatched in Modern Times'."

Katherine Webb Defends Brent Musberger

Well, I'm glad she's resisting the totalitarian PC brigades:

PREVIOUSLY: "Brent Musburger Under Fire For Comments About Katherine Webb."

Obama's Big Power Grab

Yet again an awesome talking points memo from Bill O'Reilly. The administration's pushing a constitutional crisis, no doubt.

Quentin Tarantino Gets Pissed Off in U.K. News Interview, Won't Talk About Impact of His Films on Gun Violence

The dude gets really testy in this interview with Britain's Channel 4 News.

PREVIOUSLY: "Leftists Push Gun Control Agenda 'Unmatched in Modern Times'."

'Sunny Came Home'

A huge hit at the time, but I rarely hear it anymore, from Shawn Colvin:

Sunny came home to her favorite room
Sunny sat down in the kitchen
She opened a book and a box of tools
Sunny came home with a mission

She says days go by I'm hypnotized
I'm walking on a wire
I close my eyes and fly out of my mind
Into the fire

Sunny came home with a list of names
She didn't believe in transcendence
It's time for a few small repairs she said
Sunny came home with a vengeance

She says days go by I don't know why
I'm walking on a wire
I close my eyes and fly out of my mind
Into the fire

Get the kids and bring a sweater
Dry is good and wind is better
Count the years, you always knew it
Strike a match, go on and do it

Days go by I'm hypnotized
I'm walking on a wire
I close my eyes and fly out of my mind
Into the fire
Light the sky and hold on tight
The world is burning down
She's out there on her own and she's alright
Sunny came home
Sunny came home...

'Invisible Driver' Orders Food at Drive-Up Window

This is something else, at Scallywag and Vagabond, "Drive thru invisible driver prank goes viral. A metaphor on the American fast food experience…":

Missing Teen Sarah Alarid Body Recovered

The young woman went missing New Year's Eve and Sheriff's helicopters just happened to see her car crashed at the bottom of a deep ravine while conducting a search for another person. It's the video that's startling. I can't imagine going over a cliff like that.

At KTLA 5 Los Angeles, "Sarah Alarid’s Body Recovered in Sand Canyon Ravine," and at the Los Angeles Times, "Sarah Alarid's body found in forest; detectives suspect accident."

Also, "Sarah Alarid's friends, family gather for vigil after body found."

My oldest son thinks she may have been text-messaging, took her eyes off the road and went over the side. And as she was supposed to be coming from a party, perhaps she'd been drinking. It's very sad, in any event.

Leftists Push Gun Control Agenda 'Unmatched in Modern Times'

An outstanding commentary from Kim Strassel, at the Wall Street Journal, "The Real Gun-Control Consensus":

The next time you hear a fellow American bemoaning the lack of Washington bipartisanship, tell him to cheer up. There is one issue on which Congress still resoundingly agrees: gun rights. Bear that in mind, too, the next time you read a story about the "new" political debate over gun control.

An almost cosmic disconnect has been building in the political sphere since the tragedy of Sandy Hook. On the one side is the gun-control community, which sniffed a rare political opening and is determined to use it to the max. Vice President Joe Biden's gun-violence task force has given that community a vehicle for its ambitions, even as it has encouraged it to ramp up its demands.

By this week, the elites were calling for a gun-control agenda unmatched in modern times. The closing of the gun-show "loophole"? Restrictions on large-capacity clips? An "assault weapons" ban? They want all that, plus a national gun database, and a background check for every gun sale, and similar checks for ammunition sales, and regulation of Internet transactions, and Michael Bloomberg crowned emperor. (A position for which Mr. Bloomberg no doubt believes himself suited.) The media have reported all this as rational, reasonable and doable.

On the other side is the reality that any of these proposals must, in the normal course of things, pass Congress. A few quick facts about that body. 1) More than half of its members have an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association. 2) The few members today calling for gun control are the same few who have always called for gun control. 3) The House is run by Republicans.

Despite the press's exuberant efforts to cast congressional gun supporters as having changed their minds, there has been no actual movement. Senate Democrat Joe Manchin caused a media sensation when he declared, immediately after Sandy Hook, that nobody needed "30 rounds in a clip." Less reported was that it took the Democrat about the time necessary for your average West Virginian to drive to a ballot box to clarify that statement and to add that he's "so proud of the NRA." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, even with the press's best efforts to parse his remarks, has committed himself to nothing more than a "thoughtful debate."

Montana's Jon Tester and Max Baucus, Alaska's Mark Begich, Arkansas's Mark Pryor, South Dakota's Tim Johnson, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu—all are quiet on that red-state Democratic front. North Dakota's brand new senator, Heidi Heitkamp, declared proposals mulled by the Biden task force as "way in the extreme" and "not gonna pass." Unlike Mr. Obama, all of these members still face elections.

Over in the House, when asked recently what was more likely—passage of gun control or Speaker John Boehner becoming a pagan—a senior GOP leadership aide told Buzzfeed: "Probably the latter."

Well, the White House knows it's not going to get a big agenda passed through Congress. An assault weapons ban won't be held up as the sole measure of success. The repeal of loopholes on background checks and other measures achieved by executive order will be touted as big victories for the gun-grabbing agenda.

 RELATED: "Statement From the National Rifle Association of America Regarding Today's White House Task Force Meeting" (via Memeorandum).

And check out this huge post at The Lede, "Updates on the Gun Violence Debate."

Academy Snubs Best Director Nomination for Katherine Bigelow and 'Zero Dark Thirty'

I took my oldest boy to see "Zero Dark Thirty" last night at the Irvine Spectrum. (That's him at the photo below.) This movie is freakin' spectacular. Knowing there's so much controversy I wanted to read around a bit before doing a big write up, but the film's in the news with today's announcement of the Academy Award nominees. The movie should have swept the nominations, not just for Best Director, but Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Cinematography and more. Folks may recall that Bigelow also directed "The Hurt Locker," an ultra-realistic drama of the Iraq war for which she won Best Director in 2010. We need more people like her in Hollywood. In any case, the interrogation scenes are indeed graphically portrayed, but the left's attacks on the film have been entirely knee-jerk, which is why I was waiting to comment on my experience, to read around for some background. So, look for more on this later.

Meanwhile, here's Kenneth Turan, at the Los Angeles Times, "'Zero Dark Thirty' is undeserving victim of politics":

If you're keeping score this Oscar season — and who isn't? — chalk up this year's nominations as a victory for the bullying power of the United States Senate and an undeserved loss for "Zero Dark Thirty" in general and director Kathryn Bigelow in particular.

Yes, "Zero Dark" did get five nominations, including best picture, lead actress for Jessica Chastain and original screenplay for Mark Boal. But that was only one more than for the ineffective "Anna Karenina" and nowhere near the 12 picked up by Steven Spielberg's front-running "Lincoln."

Worse than that, Bigelow, the same filmmaker who won the directing Oscar in 2010 for "The Hurt Locker," could not manage so much as a nomination for a piece of work that has been almost universally acknowledged as formidable. What changed between then and now? Three members of the Senate, a deliberative body not previously known for its cinematic acumen, decided to place their feet on the neck of this particular film.

Back on Dec. 19, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) wrote an open letter to "express our deep disappointment with 'Zero Dark Thirty.' We believe the film is grossly inaccurate and misleading in its suggestion that torture resulted in information that led to the location of Usama Bin Laden."

To anyone who knows the academy's traditional aversion to controversy (for example, disagreement dogged "The People vs. Larry Flynt" and the highly regarded "The Hurricane" ended up with only one nomination, for star Denzel Washington, after questions were raised about its accuracy) knew that letter meant Oscar trouble for "Zero." It's not even that surprising that it was the directors who caved in to the drumbeat of condemnation. As one of the smaller voting branches of the academy, it is more susceptible to the vagaries of outside pressure.

Once the senators signaled that it was open season on the film, it was a given that in this age of Internet bloviating, other voices would join in. Naomi Wolf, for instance, writing in Britain's the Guardian, called Bigelow "an apologist for evil" comparable to Nazi-era German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl and howled that the director "will be remembered forever as torture's handmaiden."

See what I mean about "knee-jerk"? Notice that disgusting Naomi Wolf moral equivalence attack on the U.S. as Nazi Germany, which is so last decade it's ridiculous. (More at that top link.)

Plus, at WSJ, "Why Did Kathryn Bigelow Get Snubbed For Best Director?"

And I can't find anything disagreeable at this movie review from Bill Goodykoontz, at the Arizona Republic, "'Zero Dark Thirty' passes test of honest intentions."

Until then...

Conversion Therapy With Amit Freidman!

Well, perhaps we've had enough coverage of the "intersex" youth radicals and the backdoor boogie brothers for the day. Here's some Amit Friedman for those looking to upgrade on that lifestyle action:

More Amit here: "Blogger Angry White Dude Announces That He Believes in the Sanctity of Marriage Between One Man and One Hot, Sexy Woman."

Here's That James Yeager 'I'm Going to Start Killing People' Video

Here's the abbreviated clip below, not including the "I'm going to start killing" people warning.

HuffPo has the rest of it, "Tactical Response CEO Threatens To 'Start Killing People' Over Possible Obama Gun Measure (VIDEO)." And check the response from the batshit crazy progressives at Memeorandum.

Mika Brzezinski Slams Joe Scarborough as 'Chauvinistic'

Well, maybe it's good for the ratings, but Mika's way out there on this one:

ICYMI: "Oops! Obama Cabinet May Not Meet Administration's Own Diversity Standards."

Five Facts About Guns, Schools, and Violence

From Nick Gillespie, at Reason.tv:

Oops! Obama Cabinet May Not Meet Administration's Own Diversity Standards

It's the left's war on women, unless folks have forgotten.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Obama Cabinet may not meet his own diversity standards":

Where's that binder full of women now?
— Melissa Joan Hart (@MelissaJoanHart) January 10, 2013

WASHINGTON — Wednesday's "photo of the day" on the White House website showed an unusual sight in Oval Office history — the president surrounded by top advisors, only half of whom are white men.

The picture seemed calculated to counter criticism that President Obama's new set of Cabinet appointees so far all are white and male.

Obama is expected to name his chief of staff, Jacob Lew, to lead the Treasury Department. Further compounding the diversity problem, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to leave the administration soon, and Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis announced Wednesday that she was resigning.

Following Solis' decision, three Cabinet officials quickly spread the word that they planned to stay, at least for now: Eric H. Holder Jr., the first black attorney general; Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; and Veterans Affairs chief Eric K. Shinseki, who is Japanese American.

But the concerns still hover over the president as he attempts to craft a team that lives up to the diversity standards of his first term. Aides say Obama raised the point himself after United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice took herself out of the running for secretary of State.

Obama places a high value on a team with a variety of experience and knowledge, aides say. More than 40% of the president's appointees have been women, according to administration officials, and the gender breakdown on the White House staff is 50-50.

"This president is committed to diversity," said Jay Carney, Obama's press secretary. "Look at the record. It is a vast improvement" from previous administrations.

Still, Obama's first round of appointments has been striking in its homogeneity. This week he nominated former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel to serve as secretary of Defense and anti-terrorism advisor John Brennan to lead the CIA. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) is slated to succeed Clinton at the State Department.

Lew is white, as are two leading candidates to fill his position: Washington lawyer Ron Klain, former chief of staff to the vice president; and Denis McDonough, a deputy national security advisor. The third is Nancy-Ann DeParle, a deputy chief of staff and a specialist on healthcare issues.

The New York Times noted the phenomenon in a story Wednesday accompanied by an image of Obama that was released recently in a collection of 2012 photographs. In it, Obama faces a semicircle of 11 advisors — 10 of them men, eight of whom are white. The only woman, senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, is almost completely obscured.

Aides complained that the photo wasn't representative. They prefer the day's whitehouse.gov photo, showing an Oval Office meeting involving Jarrett, DeParle and White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is a leading candidate to be attorney general one day.

And Rice, who as U.N. ambassador sits with the Cabinet, is a contender for national security advisor at some point in Obama's second term.

Carney urged critics not to judge the diversity of Obama's appointees too quickly.

Oh no, we wouldn't want to judge too quickly. That would horrible, just HORRIBLE!!

More at Twitchy, "Melissa Joan Hart: ‘Where’s that binder full of women now?’"

Yes, Homosexuality's a Lifestyle Choice

Well, since everybody's all fired up about homosexuals, "gay rights," and inclusion, let's just be clear about this, okay.

From Robert Oscar Lopez, at American Thinker, "Yes, gay is a choice. Get over it":

According to Peter Schmidt in the Chronicle of Higher Education, yet another individual working in higher education has been demolished for saying the wrong thing about homosexuality.  The basis on which to define people as "anti-gay" has, however, taken a turn to the absurd (and eerie).

Unlike Angela McCaskill, who was nearly fired from Gallaudet University for signing a petition on gay marriage, Crystal Dixon of the University of Toledo was fired for writing an editorial in a local newspaper.  She referred to Exodus and mentioned people who chose to leave the gay lifestyle.


For this column I will stick to the gay male angle, since I have but 1,200 words.  Even if we accepted, for argument's sake (which I do not accept), that McCaskill was "anti-gay" because she signed a petition, the case against Dixon is based purely on wild assumptions about sex.  To fire Dixon, one must accept that gay men cannot stop themselves from having anal sex or engaging in fellatio.  Without anal sex or fellatio, it would seem that a gay couple is tough to distinguish from roommates who like to kiss each other once in a while.

These assumptions bestialize and infantilize gay men.  While I have tired of penning editorials about gay controversies, the situation is dire.  I feel compelled to write a column once again emphasizing a basic reality: gay sex is a choice.  Nobody lacks the power to refrain from having gay sex.  Get.  Over.  It.

Dixon said that gays had the choice to leave the lifestyle (in other words, stop engaging in anal sex and fellatio).  According to her detractors, such was tantamount to being anti-gay.  Her detractors are following the lead of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which lists "conversion therapy" as a hate crime.

Scroll through the comments section of any article about these issues.  You will see a roll call of gays and pro-gay supporters, issuing confident testimonials that nobody has ever changed from gay to straight.  (It's fine to change from straight to gay, according to these tribunes, because that's simply coming out of the closet.)  They allude, at various times, to Simon LeVay's 1991 brain study or problematic decades-old research into identical twins, if not warped evolutionary logic from ideologues like David Barash or anecdotes about someone they know.  The research has spoken!  Anyone who says you can change your sexuality is a lying, right-wing bigot!  To which I say the following:

Does anybody who uses the term LGBT remember the "B" in that God-forsaken acronym?  Hello?  There are bisexuals.  I am one of them.  Why include us in these categories if you think we don't exist?

Dating and marriage don't magically happen, like going to the bathroom or breathing.  They take conscious choices -- where do you hang out?  What are you looking for?  What type of partner shares your goals?  Whether to hang out in gay clubs or straight clubs makes a huge difference; these are completely different cultures.  We choose the life we want to live (or leave, for that matter).

Even gay men still choose which sex acts they commit.  I hate to admit this, but I worked as a housekeeper in a gay sex club in Manhattan in the early 1990s, when I was desperate for work.  I witnessed, literally, thousands of men having sex in the open, with me having to go clean up after them.  Very rarely (thank the Lord) did they engage in anal sex.

I have known, personally, scores of gay male couples that barely have any sex at all after they have been together for a while.  (They start preferring Monday Night Football and hitting the sack early.)  A large portion of the sex club patrons came to watch and then went home.  If "Gs" can choose what kind of sex to have, they can also choose not to have sex at all.  It's a choice.

In the lurid job I held in a Manhattan sex club, I learned some other things as well.  Many men get involved in the gay scene for unexpected reasons.  Many of them want fast and inexpensive sex, sometimes because they have trouble with women.  They can go to a bathhouse or a cruising zone and pick up men without paying the fortune they'd have to spend on a prostitute.

Moreover, a lot of times I saw people who were addicted to drugs and addicted to anonymous sex; the two compulsions were linked somehow, and there was no way for such people to quit their addiction without quitting their homosexuality.  These folks often ended up on the AA circuit or joining a church and getting baptized.

Lastly, a lot of men came to the gay sex scene in order to engage in bondage and sadomasochism, because they were raped as boys.  The aftereffects of sexual assault, as we know from studying female rape victims, are complicated and often lead people to repeat or recreate the assault scene.  Many of these mentally scarred men did not even have sex in sex clubs, even though they sought male partners to enact their eroticized simulations.

There's still more at the link.

Yeah, it's a lifestyle ---- and you better get with the program or you will be destroyed!

PREVIOUSLY: "L.G.B.T.Q.I.A. — Sexual Minorities Gone Wild."

L.G.B.T.Q.I.A. — Sexual Minorities Gone Wild

At the New York Times, "Generation LGBTQIA":

@ampowerblog Good Lord! Guess kids nowadays have to try a lot harder to be considered a weirdo.
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) January 10, 2013

STEPHEN IRA, a junior at Sarah Lawrence College, uploaded a video last March on We Happy Trans, a site that shares “positive perspectives” on being transgender.

In the breakneck six-and-a-half-minute monologue — hair tousled, sitting in a wood-paneled dorm room — Stephen exuberantly declared himself “a queer, a nerd fighter, a writer, an artist and a guy who needs a haircut,” and held forth on everything from his style icons (Truman Capote and “any male-identified person who wears thigh-highs or garters”) to his toy zebra.

Because Stephen, who was born Kathlyn, is the 21-year-old child of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, the video went viral, garnering nearly half a million views. But that was not the only reason for its appeal. With its adrenalized, freewheeling eloquence, the video seemed like a battle cry for a new generation of post-gay gender activists, for whom Stephen represents a rare public face.

Armed with the millennial generation’s defining traits — Web savvy, boundless confidence and social networks that extend online and off — Stephen and his peers are forging a political identity all their own, often at odds with mainstream gay culture.

If the gay-rights movement today seems to revolve around same-sex marriage, this generation is seeking something more radical: an upending of gender roles beyond the binary of male/female. The core question isn’t whom they love, but who they are — that is, identity as distinct from sexual orientation.

But what to call this movement? Whereas “gay and lesbian” was once used to lump together various sexual minorities — and more recently “L.G.B.T.” to include bisexual and transgender — the new vanguard wants a broader, more inclusive abbreviation. “Youth today do not define themselves on the spectrum of L.G.B.T.,” said Shane Windmeyer, a founder of Campus Pride, a national student advocacy group based in Charlotte, N.C.

Part of the solution has been to add more letters, and in recent years the post-post-post-gay-rights banner has gotten significantly longer, some might say unwieldy. The emerging rubric is “L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.,” which stands for different things, depending on whom you ask.

Well, live and let live I guess.

Either that, or be destroyed by the homosexual left's Star Chamber.

Reforming U.S. Drone Strike Policies

An interesting piece from Micah Zenko, at Foreign Policy, "Target Window."

Zenko's an expert on these systems, apparently, but he still falls into the trap of fingering the Bush administration as the bad guy in the evolving regime of drone warfare. He corrects himself, implicitly, with this passage correctly putting the onus on the Obama administration for a public reconciliation of drone policy in line with both U.S. interests and values:

If the United States hopes to have normative influence on how others use drones -- and administration officials repeatedly claim that they do -- then U.S. leadership must provide a legal framework, a coherent and plausible explanation of the scope of legitimate targets, and a rationale for how targeted killings are coordinated with broader foreign policy objectives. The problem is that the administration's public articulation of its drone strike policies -- used only against specific senior al Qaeda officials who pose an imminent threat to the U.S. homeland -- are fundamentally at odds with how they are actually employed, such as the use of signature strikes against suspected militants predominantly engaged in domestic insurgencies.

To address these issues, the Obama administration should bring its drone strike practices in line with its stated policies by: exclusively limiting its targeted killings to the leadership of al Qaeda or those with a direct operational role in past or ongoing terrorist plots; immediately ending the practice of signature strikes, or publically explaining how they plausibly meet the principles of distinction and proportionality; and reviewing the current policy whereby the executive authority for drone strikes is split between the CIA and Joint Special Operations Command, which have different legal authorities, degrees of permissible transparency, and oversight.

RTWT.

The Homosexual Star Chamber Exacts Its Latest Penalty

I'm sure if they could they'd have had this guy executed for heresy.

At the New York Times, "Louie Giglio, Inaugural Pastor, Criticized for Antigay Sermon":

WASHINGTON — The pastor whom President Obama has chosen to deliver the benediction at his inauguration this month delivered a sermon in the 1990s in which he called on fellow Christians to fight the “aggressive agenda” of the gay rights movement and advocated “the healing power of Jesus” as “the only way out of a homosexual lifestyle.”

Think Progress, a liberal blog affiliated with the Center for American Progress Action Fund, reported Wednesday afternoon on the sermon delivered by the Rev. Louie Giglio, an Atlanta minister and founder of the Passion Conferences, a group dedicated to uniting college students in worship and prayer.

The speech, “In Search of a Standard — Christian Response to Homosexuality,” can be heard on Discipleship Library, a Christian training Web site.

In it, Mr. Giglio cites Scripture in saying that homosexuality “is sin in the eyes of God, and it is sin in the word of God.” He warned against gay rights. “That movement is not a benevolent movement,” he said. “It is a movement to seize by any means necessary the feeling and the mood of the day, to the point where the homosexual lifestyle becomes accepted as a norm in our society.”

Inaugural officials did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokeswoman for Mr. Giglio was not available.

Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, which fights antigay sentiment, said: “It is imperative that Giglio clarify his remarks and explain whether he has evolved on gay rights, like so many other faith and political leaders. It would be a shame to select a preacher with backward views on L.G.B.T. people at a moment when the nation is rapidly moving forward on our issues.”

"Backward views." Get that? If you're not down with the extremist, morally bankrupt progressive homosexual agenda, you're "backward."

I dare say this country is going backward straight to hell. And not a single conservative is blogging this story at Memeorandum. You'd think that folks on the right had seen a ghost, and it's the phantom of their own social-conservative past.

My god this country is doomed.

Obama Administration Takes Action on Guns

An executive order. WTF?

That is exactly in the freakin' Obama administration's style.

At WSJ, "Biden Says White House May Bypass Congress Over Guns":

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is considering taking executive action to stem gun violence, Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday, suggesting that some federal gun regulations will change even if support doesn't materialize in Congress.

"The president is going to act," Mr. Biden said, as he opened multiple days of meetings with interest groups as part of his assignment from Mr. Obama to draw up proposals for responding to the elementary-school shootings in Newtown, Conn. White House officials said no decisions had been made about what steps the administration would take.

Mr. Biden met Wednesday with gun-safety advocacy groups, as well as victims and survivors of shootings. He also made calls to governors, mayors and other local officials.

The vice president said in the private meeting he hoped to deliver recommendations to the president as soon as next week, a participant said. The meeting yielded consensus on calls for improved background checks and on bans on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, according to the participant.

Mr. Biden is likely to face resistance to most of those ideas on Thursday, when he is due to meet with the National Rifle Association, the nation's most powerful gun lobby, and other gun-rights groups. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., WMT -0.03% the country's largest seller of guns, initially said it couldn't meet Thursday with the vice president but on Wednesday said it would send a representative.

There is little sign lawmakers and advocacy groups on either side of the debate are willing to alter their stances, though room for agreement may exist in some areas, such as requiring states to increase their submission of mental-health records to the background-check system used to screen people buying guns from federally licensed dealers.

Mike Hammond, legislative counsel for Gun Owners of America, which wasn't invited to meet with Mr. Biden, said he didn't expect Thursday's meeting with gun-rights groups to be constructive. "They are being summoned" and will be "lectured," he said.

The NRA declined to comment on what it expects will happen at the meeting. The organization, which last month called for a national campaign to place armed security in the nation's schools, sent a letter to members of Congress last week saying it planned to be a constructive voice in the debate while emphasizing that "gun bans do not work."

One person who has taken part in several of Mr. Biden's meetings said one issue has been what role the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives should have. A law-enforcement official involved in the talks said the administration has questioned whether the ATF should be given a new mission or moved into another agency.

Some states are trying to advance their own measures. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed broad changes to the state's gun laws Wednesday, putting New York on track to be the first to revamp its gun laws following the Newtown shootings.

New York already has some of the nation's strictest gun laws, including an assault-weapons ban, but Mr. Cuomo directed his calls for change at so-called loopholes in the laws.

More at that top link. And also lots more at Memeorandum.

Plus, at Instapundit here and here, for starters.

And at The Blaze, "FOX’S ‘THE FIVE’ RETALIATES AGAINST GAWKER’S NYC GUN OWNER LIST BY AIRING FOUNDER’S PHONE NUMBER."

More at RealClearPolitics, "'Krauthammer: Gun Confiscation "Unconstitutional And Would Cause Insurrection In The Country'."

BONUS: At the Right Scoop, "Pat Caddell: ‘This country is on the verge of an explosion’."

I'll have more later...

Why Is GOP Defending Neoconservatism?

The headline at top is cribbed from RealClearPolitics' link to Paul Mulshine, at The New Jersey Star Ledger, "On Hagel, the Republicans protest a return to realism." And from the piece:

Did you hear what that liberal, left-wing commie Barack Obama is up to? Why, that pinko’s gone and picked a former Republican senator who’s a war hero as secretary of defense! Can you imagine anything more un-American than that?

Sorry if I sounded like a Fox News commentator for a second there. But that’s the tone the Fox News crowd has adopted in light of the nomination of Chuck Hagel for defense secretary. An online poll showed that Fox fans were spewing this nonsense back at the talking heads by a 10-1 margin.

If this sort of thing were confined to the cartoon show that is Fox News, that would be okay. But the leaders of the Republican Party are mouthing the same sort of stuff. All the usual suspects are denouncing Hagel for being insufficiently enthusiastic about continuing the mindless meddling in the Mideast that began with George W. Bush and continued through Obama’s first term.

With his nomination of Hagel, Obama seems determined to make a long-overdue break with that past and return to realism in foreign policy. Republicans used to boast of being realists. But the term became a dirty word in the years when Bush was employing the U.S. military as a sort of armed wing of the League of Women Voters in his haste to spread democracy.

Bush’s father saw things differently, as did Republican presidents before him. Richard Nixon embraced the realism of Henry Kissinger. Gerald Ford and Bush 41 both appointed as national security adviser a Kissinger disciple by the name of Brent Scowcroft.

In the run-up to the Iraq War in 2002, Scowcroft penned a piece for the Wall Street Journal headlined "Don’t attack Saddam." In it, he noted that an invasion "would have to be followed by a large-scale, long-term military occupation." For good measure, he added that an invasion "could well destabilize Arab regimes in the region" and "could even swell the ranks of the terrorists."

Hagel was saying the same sort of thing around the same time while a senator. "I think it would be unwise and dangerous if the United States would move unilaterally against Iraq," he said. "My fundamental question is, ‘What happens next? So if you take Saddam Hussein out, who governs? Do you let Iraq be fractured into many components?’ "

All of those dreadful results occurred right on schedule. Yet the realists get no respect from their fellow Republicans to this day. Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina called the Hagel pick "an in-your-face nomination" by Obama. And on a Sunday talk show, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wondered aloud whether Hagel would stand up to questioning concerning "the importance of having a robust military."

McConnell said that right after he blasted "the president and the Democratic majority in the Senate’s unwillingness to cut spending." But it’s the Republicans who oppose cutting the biggest discretionary outlay. That’s military spending, and reducing it would not be difficult once we returned to realism.

There's still more at the link, especially the part where Mulshine labels Hagel a "paleo-conservative" (a meaningless term with regard to Israel, as the so-called "paleos" by default just make common cause with the Israel-hating left).

Okay. Where to begin? For one thing, Mulshine might have mentioned the fact that Hagel voted for the Iraq deployment before he turned against it. I can't speak for other despised "neoconservatives," but more than anything else I hate rank opportunists like the craven former Senator Hagel. That (renounced) vote alone makes him no different from the avoid-force-at-all-costs Democrats who first voted for war then pushed to cut-and-run from Iraq from 2003 onward. This is the left's "great betrayal," a stab-in-the-back to America's troops that's unforgivable.

Second, today's realists aren't of the cold, calculating Nixon-Kissinger mold of the 1970s, or of the advisers to President Bush 41. In 1973 the Nixon administration went to DefCon III on the news of possible Soviet intervention on the side of the Arab states against Israel in the Yom Kippur War. That's the last thing that today's Democrat realists would do. Indeed, it's not the "GOP defending neoconservatism." It's the GOP defending Israel as an independent state after this administration has demonstrated its readiness to cast Jerusalem to the wolves.

I've written about today's "realists" many times, most tellingly Harvard political scientist Stephen Walt. Here's his post yesterday on the Hagel nomination, with all his classic odiousness regarding U.S. support for Israel, "What the Hagel fight does and doesn't mean":

...the real question with the fight over Hagel is whether it is the beginning of a thaw in foreign policy discourse inside the American establishment. Until the Hagel case, ambitious foreign policy wannabes understood that one either had to be completely silent about the "special relationship" with Israel or one had to be an open and vocal supporter. The merest hint that you had independent thoughts on this matter would make you slightly suspect at best or provoke overt accusations that you were an anti-semite, effectively derailing any political ambitions you might have had. The result was an absurdly truncated debate in Washington, where one couldn't even talk about the role of the Israel lobby without getting smeared. Indeed, one couldn't even ask if unconditional U.S. support for Israel was in Israel's best interest, let alone America's, despite the growing evidence that its settlement policy was threatening its long-term future.

By making such ludicrous charges about Hagel, however, neoconservatives and other extremists made it clear just how nasty, factually ignorant, and narrow-minded they are, and how much they believed that the commitment to Israel ought to trump other foreign policy priorities. And it wasn't just the absurd claim that Hagel was anti-semitic; it was the bizarre suggestion that a key job requirement for the U.S. Secretary of Defense was a deep and passionate attachment to a foreign country. The attacks on Hagel triggered a long-overdue reaction from a remarkably wide circle -- including many staunch defenders of Israel -- who were clearly disgusted by the smear tactics and aren't willing to quail before them anymore.

Furthemore, as Peter Beinart noted yesterday, Hagel's appointment might also dilute the perceived need for policy wonks to seem hawkish and bellicose even when skepticism about the use of force is called for. While no dove, Hagel has been intelligently critical of sending young men and women into harm's way without a clear strategy and compelling national interest. His appointment might open up foreign policy debate to a much wider range of views, instead of the narrow-minded bellicosity that has prevailed since 9/11 (if not before).

It's too soon to tell how far-reaching this shift might be. No doubt Hagel's opponents will try to make him express his undying fidelity to Israel during his hearings, in an effort to restore the previous political orthodoxy. But it's a losing cause, especially when Israel itself is about to elect the most right-wing government in its history and when Americans of many political stripes are beginning to understand that the "special relationship" may in fact have become a form of assisted suicide. For the record, I hope that's not the case. Avoiding it will require the United States to be able to speak more honestly on this entire subject, and I hope the Hagel affair opens the door to a far more open, fact-based, and smear-free debate on the entire subject of U.S. foreign and defense policy, including our perenially hamstrung approach to the greater Middle East.

If the Nixon-Kissinger foreign policy apparatus internally disliked Jews and, as some have claimed, were indifferent to Soviet human rights abuses against the Jews back in the day, they were nevertheless fierce defenders of the Jewish state, and put American foreign policy on the line to protect Israel's national security interests as the key to stability in the region. That's no longer the case among the so-called "realists" of today, as anyone who knows Professor Walt's repulsive anti-Israel bigotry will recall (see Eliot Cohen for a refresher, just in case, "Yes, It's Anti-Semitic").

The Hagel nomination is the epic battle ground for the competing visions of U.S. foreign and national security policy for the next four years and beyond. These are bad people, Hagel and his co-nominees at State and the CIA. Not just incompetent, but bad actors all around. See: "'They are all stupid people. Some friends said I shouldn't write this because it is a subjective judgment and sounds mean-spirited. But honest, it's true...'."

Enjoying Ben Shapiro's 'Bullies'

Picked up a copy yesterday and I'm into Chapter 3 so far. It's good. And I'm getting retweeted by the man Ben Shapiro himself. Cool.

Get yours here: Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans.

Angelica Huston's Double Chin

I'm thinking, "And that's not a Photoshop?"

At London's Daily Mail, "Worried that you're turning into the double-chinned likes of Anjelica Huston? Here's how to lose that flabby face in just EIGHT weeks."

And no double chin at my 2010 #Bama Rose Bowl photo, but I better be careful. I might start slacking like somebody we know around here, LOL!